


Try, Try Again

by redcandle17



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 08:18:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2766116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcandle17/pseuds/redcandle17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ser Hyle Hunt tries - and tries again - to win the affections of Lady Brienne of Tarth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Try, Try Again

The woman swung a fist larger than his own at his face. Hyle couldn't dodge the blow in time and it knocked him on his arse. He touched his jaw gingerly and winced. "Seven hells, Brienne! You nearly broke my jaw!"

She stood over him as if she sorely wanted to hit him again. But she was too honorable to kick a man when he was down. 

Hyle offered her the bunch of white and yellow wildflowers he'd picked. "I brought you these."

"I don't want anything from you!"

She was bigger and stronger than most men, but her heart was as tender as any other woman's and Hyle could see that she was struggling not to cry. For the first time he felt... what? Guilty? Ashamed? 

"I'm trying to apologize, my lady."

"I don't want your apology, ser, or anything else from you. Approach me again and I _will_ break your jaw."

Raymond Nayland strolled over and helped Hyle to his feet. He was shaking his head and chuckling. "You have balls the size of melons, Hunt. But I'd not risk Lord Randyll's wrath. He threatened to geld any man who continued trying to bed the wench." 

Hyle did not correct Raymond's assumption that he'd been persisting in the wager for the Maid of Tarth's maidenhood. He forced a laugh. "I was being a proper knight like he said. I was making amends to the lady." 

"Aye, with your cock if she'd let you."

Hyle held up his thumb and forefinger. "I was this close to fucking her. I'd have won that wager if Lord Tarly hadn't intervened."

Raymond shook his head. "Nay. It was my music that had her moist." 

Laughing, the two went off in search of ale and campfollowers. Hyle resolved to put Brienne of Tarth out of his thoughts.

~

His dying thought was what a great fool Brienne of Tarth was. Even if she was unwilling to actually kill the Kingslayer, she could still tell the outlaws what they wanted to hear. They were going to die because she was too bloody stupid to lie.

Then he could breathe again. Hyle drew in deep gulps of air. He was no longer swinging from a noose. Beside him Brienne and her squire Pod were also gasping. Had the outlaws strung them up only to scare them? 

But no. The big one who'd taken to wearing the Hound's helm hauled Brienne to her feet roughly. "The Stranger's kiss changed your mind, did it?" He chuckled meanly. 

"Our lady will be pleased to hear it," said the young northman. 

So Brienne had agreed to the outlaws' demand at the last moment. _Thank you for not letting me die for your honor,_ he wanted to say to her, but when Hyle tried to speak, he could only cough. 

The outlaws granted her the remainder of the day and the night to rest, as she was in no condition to set off riding. Hyle found himself being forced back into the same stinking corner of the cave they'd kept him and Pod before. 

"Don't rest too comfortably," one of the outlaws sneered. "If she thinks to betray us by warning Lannister instead of gutting him, the two of you will dance for the Stranger yet." 

"What will you do, ser? I mean, my lady?" Pod asked, once the outlaws had left them alone. 

"I will not let them kill you," Brienne assured the boy. She glanced at Hyle. "Nor you, ser." 

"You could kill him," Hyle said. "He'd never expect an attack from a woman, not even a woman like you." 

"Never," Brienne said softly. "I couldn't. Jaime..." She said no more, but she didn't have to. The way she'd spoken the name was enough. The crazed wench was in love with the Kingslayer. 

So she liked handsome faces, did she? First Renly Baratheon and now Jaime Lannister. Well, ugly men pursued beautiful women all the time, so why shouldn't an ugly woman pine for handsome men? An heiress like her could even get herself a handsome husband if she wasn't too choosy. Many a handsome but penniless knight would be happy to wed Tarth. 

It was the first time Hyle had ever considered that he might not be attractive enough for Brienne. He'd expected that a woman as ugly as her would be happy to have any man's attention. He wasn't ugly, but he certainly was no Loras Tyrell either. His looks were rather common. Average. Plain. 

The red priest brought them bowls of stew then, putting an end to Hyle's disturbing thoughts. He laughed at himself in disgust. What a time to be worrying about his looks. 

"I'll come back for you," Brienne promised them the next morning, as the outlaws led her away. 

Hyle almost believed her. He didn't doubt that she would try to save them, but she wasn't going to sacrifice her beloved Kingslayer for them. He couldn't even bring himself to hate her for it. He wished her a suitably honorable end.

~

Funny that after surviving Lady Stoneheart and her band of outlaws, and his mad queen sister and her monster, it should be a festering wound that finally killed the Kingslayer.

Jaime Lanni  
ster died weakly jesting to his last breath while Brienne wept openly. She held his cold body for hours, showing no sign of letting him go. Finally Hyle had to act for her own good. He lead a group of men-at-arms to wrestle the body away from her. She fought them at first, even giving Hyle a busted lip, but then the fight seemed to go out of her. 

Hyle wrapped his arms around her, and while she did not return his embrace, she did not reject it either. "You have your memories of him. This isn't Jaime Lannister any more, this is just a sack of meat. Let us burn it, Brienne."

"He wouldn't have wanted to be burned. He told me once how Mad Aerys intended to burn all of King's Landing before he killed him and his pyromancers."

"He was a pragmatic man. He'd understand - no, he'd insist on it."

Brienne took in the rapidly fading twilight. "Do it quickly then." 

They'd arranged a pyre hours ago and now the men moved quickly. They lifted Lannister's body onto the pile of wood and set the whole thing ablaze. They all knew what could happen if the dead were not reduced to ashes before the last light of the sun had fled and darkness took hold.

~

She'd had an easy pregnancy as far as these things went, but once the birth started, that changed. She screamed as he'd never heard her scream.

It was not until the next day that the Kingslayer's bastard was born. He was a large healthy boy with the same fair hair as his parents. His eyes were a murky blue but the maester said that might change later. Brienne named him Arthur Storm after the legendary Sword of the Morning, whom his father had greatly admired. 

"Your father would want you to be like Ser Arthur Dayne," she whispered to her infant. "Not like him. He wanted to be like Arthur, too, before the people he served and loved corrupted him. I'll see you stay true."

Hyle reflected how love could blind a woman to a man's faults as greatly as it could blind a man to a woman's face. If you asked him, Jaime Lannister deserved a greater share of blame for the man he'd become. But Lannister was dead and gone. His memory would become as distant as Renly Baratheon's in time.

~

"You are a good, loyal man," Lord Selwyn had said to him once.

Hyle had made a jape in reply. Such talk made him uncomfortable and, anyway, he knew he was not a good or loyal man. He was not a bad man either, however. He was simply a landless knight making his way in the world the best he could. Service at Evenfall Hall was not a bad lot. There were much worse things he could be doing. 

Lord Selwyn was a decent fellow. Had been a decent fellow. 

"Take Arthur," Brienne said to Hyle. "I will prepare my father for his final rest myself." 

Hyle hoisted the boy up onto his shoulders and carried him out of the room. "Your mother is the lady of Tarth now, lad."

"Grandfather is lord of Tarth," Arthur said. At three years of age, he was old enough to understand lordship and the hierarchies in life, but not old enough to understand death. 

He was a good boy and Brienne would not tolerate him to become anything less than a good man, but he would never be lord of Tarth. The queen on the Iron Throne would never legitimize the Kingslayer's bastard. Unless Brienne wed and bred a trueborn child, Evenfall Hall and Tarth would pass to a second cousin once removed. 

It was not unexpected when Brienne sought him out two moons later. "I promised my father I would wed and continue our line. I promised him on his deathbed."

"You and your promises," Hyle said. Once he would have said it with mockery. But he could not help admiring her dedication to upholding her oaths. 

The water around Tarth was the darkest of sapphires in the moonlight. Hyle knew Brienne's eyes would be the same color, but she was not looking at him. She was surveying her island and he knew what she said next would be said for its sake and the sake of her forefathers. 

"You once offered me your hand, ser. Does that offer still stand?"

This was what he wanted. He'd have a permanent home, lands, marriage to a highborn lady, and his future son would be a lord. So why did Hyle feel so hollow? However he was not about to refuse.

"It does." He bent a knee and held up his hands in supplication. "May I have your hand in marriage, my lady?"

She ignored his outstretched hands. "Very well. We will be wed. In three moons' time?"

Hyle rose and brushed sand from his breeches. "That's as good a time as any." Because she would expect it from him, he mustered a suggestive grin. "But we need not wait for the bedding. I won't tell if you won't." 

To his surprise, she smiled. "I will expect you to honor your marriage vows when we are wed, but... I am no innocent maid and we are not wedding for love. I will not hold what you do before we marry against you."

She was giving him permission to sow his last wild oats. Hyle should have been grateful, but he found he was offended and almost hurt. Did she think so little of him still? He wanted to protest, but he kept silent. He'd prove to her that he could be good for her.

~

"I don't want to leave the children without both parents," Brienne whispered.

Hyle knew what she was asking of him. Most ladies who held lands appointed a champion to represent them in combat and lead their men in battle. Most ladies were not warriors of renown like Brienne. The master-at-arms and the captain of the guard reported to his lady wife, not to him.

Storm's End had called its banners and Lady Brienne meant to lead Tarth's soldiers to war herself. Hyle was to stay home and tend to the children. He would be humiliated in the eyes of the realm. He would be deemed less of a man. 

"You go. I'll stay."

Brienne was surprised. Clearly she'd expected to have to persuade and perhaps bribe him into staying behind. 

Hyle nuzzled her neck and smoothed a hand down her bare back. 

"Hyle, aren't you going to argue?"

"What for? We both know you're the better warrior."

"Most men..."

"I'm not most men." Hyle kissed her long and deep, and when they parted, he said, "I'm your man, Brienne." 

She was smiling. "Yes, you are."

Hyle had everything a man could ever want. He kissed his wife again.


End file.
